01 // An ongoing webscrapbook
Dimensino is an ongoing webscrapbook series begun in 2020: a running set of notes on the AI, crypto, Web3 and robotics ecosystem, and its relationship to the coming ‘Metaverse’.
Not a product review column. Dimensino watches infrastructure; protocols, rights and rails that will decide what future worlds can be made of, and who is allowed to build in them.
It is a parallel thinking track to my ongoing professional participation in the emerging discipline of World Running.
It is important to think in public. Some ideas and threads get developed elsewhere. Others are cut and left as frayed ideas at the edge of my thinking. Some entries are essays, others commentary, or just quick notes.
02 // The hard things
Dimensino is about ‘hard’ things. The protocols running on the machines we will build new worlds in, and run them on.
Worlds & Protocols
Autonomous worlds, DAOs, intellectual property and the governance layers that decide who gets to build inside a world once it exists.
Agents & Intelligence
AI assistants, agentic commerce, crypto payment rails, and what happens to an interface once the software starts acting on its own behalf.
Bodies & Brands
AR/VR, synthetic identity, V-Tubers and the corporations trying to become characters — who gets to be someone else online, and on whose platform.
03 // Season one
In 2020 I made a pile of predictions.
In 2023 I reviewed them.
The first run of Dimensino, written across 2020 and early 2021, was a sustained argument about where crypto, Web3 and the ‘Metaverse’ were actually heading.
Two years later I went back through the whole thing in public, in two parts, and scored it. Some of it aged well. Some of it very much did not.
04 // Selected entries
PERMISSIVE IPs
Community owned and governed story worlds, found by splitting the difference between ‘Internet Protocol’ and ‘Intellectual Property’.
Unstoppable, Infinitely Moddable, Autonomous Worlds
What it means to build a world nobody can switch off, and what everyone else is then free to do inside it.
Making Friends with AI
Could a Tamagotchi-style lifecycle keep us at a healthy emotional distance from the assistants we are being encouraged to love?
The Near Future of AI Agents
A primer on agentic AI, and the governance layer that is quietly becoming the most important product space of the year.
05 // The Archive
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Post
The Near Future of AI Agents
A primer on the near future of agentic AI, and the governance layer that will become the most important product space this year.
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PostCloudflare’s NET Dollar: AI Agents, Crypto Rails, and Web Payments
This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about AI agents, agents scurrying around paying for things with blockchains.
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EPISODE #2509Surface Without Substance | 2509
With its smooth, depthless glass, the smartphone is the ultimate surface. It denies the body its place in the interface.
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EPISODE #2505
Helpful LLocal Models | 2505
Tutorial engines are coming. And they’ll run atop local AI models embedded in our devices at the OS level..
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Weeknote
Hold On
Trump Coin has sort of got lost in the noise in UK media due to the Tiktok shut down. But its way more insane…
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EPISODE #2428
The New Economic Entertainment | 2428
The future of entertainment is interactive, monetised, intertwined with AI and social media, gaming and gambling.
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EPISODE #2421
Cathedral of Screens | 2421
Apple wasn’t just selling products; they were selling a vision, a glimpse into what the world could be. But now we’re in that future—the…
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EPISODE #2412
Surface Flatness | 2412
Don’t you think that the surface of the Internet feels super flat right now? I don’t just mean it’s UX but the whole internet.
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Post
Making Friends with AI
It’s worth exploring whether a Tamagotchi style lifecycle design pattern could be applied to AI assistants to help users maintain healthy emotional distance.
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EPISODE #2337
Like We Did In Y2K | 2337
The cultural and tech comeback of the Y2K era. Old trends shaping the state of the post vibe shift Internet.
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EPISODE #2325
The Rise of Co-Play: The Future of Multiplayer Software | 2325
I regret to inform you, for better or worse, the future of societal coordination and maybe even politics will emerge from gamer culture.
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Post
Tasty Vision, Pricey Byte | Thoughts on Apple Vision Pro
There’ll be more people watching others immersed in VR worlds than actually in them. A 5% ratio, seems like a reasonable estimate.
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WEEKNOTE #296
Autonomous Worlds Summit – Lisbon
I attended the Autonomous Worlds Summit last week. In the last year; unstoppable, infinitely moddable worlds built on the blockchain have become a reality
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Post
Season 1 – Recap Pt2 | Dimensino
In 2020 I wrote a series of posts on the future Crypto / Web3, and the development of the coming ‘Metaverse’. Lets see how…
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Post
Season 1 Recap – Pt1 | Dimensino
In 2020 I wrote a series of posts on the future Crypto / Web3, and the technical development of the coming ‘Metaverse’. Lets see…
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EPISODE #2307
What a Difference A(I) Week Makes | 2307
In less than 6 weeks we’ve gone from ‘OpenAI’s chatbot is weird but interesting’ to ‘Google is doomed because they’re not shipping AI search…
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WEEKNOTE #280
Twice In One Week
I went into town twice this week, the most frequency I’ve been in Central London since the before times. Both for good reasons tho.
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WEEKNOTE #274
Unstoppable, Infinitely Moddable, Autonomous Worlds
Unstoppable, Infinitely Moddable, Autonomous Worlds are coming.
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WEEKNOTE #273
Sounds Like the Metaverse
With distortion banned, remix has become the go-to content filter workaround. For millions pop music now sounds like this..
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EPISODE #2235
Mickey in the Metaverse | 2235
As a symbol of the copyright regime of the 20thC. A permissive Mickey in the metaverse seems like an interesting experiment to try.
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EPISODE #2228
Pinball Wizard | 2228
Pinball Wizard is the name for a 1970’s cyborg. People who first entered a world inside a machine and ‘touched’ the metaverse.
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Announcement
Daemon & Discord: Anatomy of the DAO | The New Centre
Daemon & Discord: Anatomy of the DAO @ The New Centre: Begins August 2022
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EPISODE #2212
DAOs: Governance vs Coordination | 2212
21st century meme culture and real-time chat have combined in DAOs to create the rolling AGM as a novel participatory form
06 // Follow the series
New entries land irregularly, whenever something in the stack shifts enough to be worth a note.
Follow the series on its own dedicated RSS feed, or my general newsletter below.
If you work in a related space and would like to work together, please reach out.